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The Republic of Albania is an official candidate for accession to the European Union since June 2014. Officially recognised by the EU as a "potential candidate country" in 2000, Albania started negotiations on a Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) in 2003. This was successfully agreed and signed on 12 June 2006, thus completing the first major step toward Albania's full membership in the EU. Albania applied for European Union membership on 28 April 2009. Following the steps of countries joining the EU in 2004, Albania has been extensively engaged with EU institutions, and joined NATO as a full member in 2009. Following its application for EU membership, the Council of the European Union asked the European Commission on 16 November 2009 to prepare an assessment on the readiness of Albania to start accession negotiations, a step in the accession process that usually takes about a year.〔http://euobserver.com/9/29001〕 On 16 December 2009, the European Commission submitted the Questionnaire on accession preparation to the Albanian government. Albania returned answers to them on 14 April 2010. On 5 December 2013, an MEP meeting recommended to the Council to grant Albania candidate status without undue delay.''〔'' On 23 June 2014, under the Greek EU Presidency, the Council of the European Union agreed to grant Albania candidate status, which was endorsed by the European Council a few days later. ==Chronology of the relations with the European Union== In 1992 a Trade and Co-operation Agreement between the EU and Albania was signed, and Albania became eligible for funding under the EU Phare programme. In 1997 the EU Council of Ministers established political and economic conditionality for the development of bilateral relations between Albania and the EU. In 1999 the EU proposed the new Stabilisation and Association Process (SAP) for five countries of Southeastern Europe, including Albania. Starting from 1999 Albania benefited from Autonomous Trade Preferences with the EU. In year 2000 duty-free access to EU market was granted for products from Albania.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://ec.europa.eu/enlargement/potential-candidate-countries/albania/eu_albania_relations_en.htm )〕 In June 2000, during the European Council stated that all the SAP countries are "potential candidates" for EU membership. In November 2000, at the Zagreb Summit, the SAP was officially endorsed by the EU and the Western Balkan countries (including Albania). 2001 was the first year of the new CARDS programme specifically designed for the SAP countries. In June 2001 the Commission recommended the undertaking of negotiations on a ''Stabilisation and Association Agreement'' (SAA) with Albania. The Göteborg European Council (June 2001) invited the Commission to present draft negotiating directives for the negotiation of a SAA. In October 2002 directives for the negotiation of a SAA with Albania were adopted 31 January 2003. In 31 January, Commission President Prodi officially launches the negotiations for a SAA between the EU and Albania. In June 2003 at the Thessaloniki Summit, the SAP was confirmed as the EU policy for the Western Balkans and the EU perspective for these countries was confirmed (countries participating in the SAP started to be eligible for EU accession and would join the EU once they would become ready). In December 2005 the Council made the decision on the principles of a revised European Partnership for Albania. In 12 June 2006 the SAA was signed at the General Affairs and External Relations Council in Luxembourg.〔 In 9 November 2006 the European Commission decided to start visa facilitation negotiations with Albania, and in 13 April 2007 the visa facilitation agreement was signed in Zagreb. The signing EU Commissioner Franco Frattini was quoted saying that this is the first step toward a full abolishment of the visa requirements and the free movement of the Albanian citizens in the EU. In 1 January 2008 the visa facilitation agreement entered into force and in 7 March 2008 EU Commissioner Franco Frattini opened in Tirana the dialogue toward the liberalisation of the visa regime between Albania and EU. In 14 January 2009 the SAA ratification process by all the member states was completed and in 1 April 2009 The SAA entered into force. In 28 April 2009 Albania formally applied for membership in the European Union.〔 In 16 November 2009 the Council of the EU asked the European Commission to prepare an assessment on Albania's readiness to start accession negotiations. The Commission submitted the Questionnaire on accession preparation to the Albanian government.〔 In 14 April 2010 Albania submitted answers to the European Commission's Questionnaire,〔 but candidacy status was not granted by the EU in December 2010 due to the long-lasting political row in the country.〔MEMO/10/553: Key findings of the Opinion on Albania; (Enlargement Strategy and Progress Report 2010 ); (); (Balkan Insight )〕 In 27 May 2010 The European Commission proposed visa free travel for Albania. The adopted proposal will enable citizens of Albania to travel to Schengen countries without needing a short term visa. In 8 November 2010 the Council of the European Union approved visa-free travel to Schengen Area for Albanian citizens. In 15 December 2010 Visa-free access to the Schengen area entered into force and in 10 October 2012 the European Commission recommended that Albania be granted EU candidate status, subject to the completion of key measures in certain areas. The parliament in August 2012 rejected a proposal to abolish immunity for parliament members, ministers and people in some other official positions. The EU required this to be abolished along with 11 other main issues, so candidate status was further delayed.〔(Albania fails to vote through reform required by EU )〕 However, in September 2012 a constitutional amendment was unanimously passed which limited the immunity of parliamentarians. In October 2012 the European Commission evaluated the progress of Albania to comply with 12 key conditions to achieve official candidate status and start accession negotiations. Four key priorities were found to be met, while two were well in progress and the remaining six were in moderate progress. The report concluded that if Albania managed to hold a fair and democratic parliamentary election in June 2013, and also implemented the remaining changes to comply with the eight key priorities still not fully met, then the Council of the European Union would recommended granting Albania official candidate status. In 23 June 2013 Albania held a general election, generally regarded as free and fair.〔(Albania might be EU candidate by December )〕 The EU ambassador to Albania said on July 17 that Albania had met many of these conditions, and might be an official candidate by December 2013.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title= Albania might be EU candidate by December )〕 On 16 October 2013 the European Commission released its annual reports on prospective member states which concluded that the Albanian election was held in an "orderly manner" and that progress had been made in meeting other conditions; as such it recommended granting Albania candidate status. In 5 December 2013 in an MEP meeting it was recommended that "...the Council should acknowledge the progress made by Albania by granting it candidate status without undue delay." However, several states, including Denmark and the Netherlands, remained opposed to granting Albania candidate status until it demonstrated that its recent progress could be sustained.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Serbia Expected To Get EU Membership Boost; Delay For Albania )〕 Consequently, the Council of the European Union, at its meeting in December 2013, agreed to postpone the decision on candidate status until June 2014. On 24 June 2014, under the Greek EU Presidency, the Council of the European Union agreed to grant Albania candidate status, which was endorsed by the European Council a few days later. This coincided with the 10th anniversary of the "Agenda 2014", proposed by the Greek Government in 2004, as part of the EU-Western Balkans Summit in Thessaloniki, for boosting the integration of all the Western Balkan states into the European Union. In March 2015, at the fifth "High Level Dialogue meeting" between Albania and EU, the EU Commissioner for Enlargement (Johannes Hahn) notified Albania the setting of a start date for accession negotiations to begin still required the following two conditions to be met: 1) The government need to reopen political dialogue with the parliamentary opposition, 2) Albania must deliver quality reforms for all 5 earlier identified key areas not yet complied with (''public administration, rule of law, corruption, organised crime, fundamental rights''〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=5 priorities for negotiations, Fleckenstein defends report in EP, "Reforms in Albania are ambitious" )〕).〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Start of accession talks, Tirana demands a date, Brussels is silent )〕 This official stance, was fully supported by the European Parliament through its pass of a Resolution comment in April 2015,〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=2014 progress report on Albania - 2014/2951(RSP) )〕 which basically agreed with all conclusions drawn by the Commission's latest 2014 Progress Report on Albania.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=European Parliament resolution of 30 April 2015 on the 2014 Progress Report on Albania (2014/2951(RSP)) )〕 The Albanian Prime Minister outlined the next step of his government would be to submit a detailed progress report on the implementation of the 5 key reforms to the Commission in Autumn 2015, and then he expected the accession negotiations should start shortly afterwards - before the end of 2015.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Accession of Albania to the European Union」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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